No, I’m not considering changing careers; I want to be a police officer more than anything. Yesterday after Mass I was talking to Uncle Steve and cousin Stephanie while we were leaving the church. We went up to shake Father’s hand on the way out. I shook his hand and turned to leave. He grabbed my shirt so I wouldn’t walk away. When he was finished talking with Uncle Steve he turned to me and said, “Consider a career in the priesthood. We have a great retirement plan in this life and the next.” I must have given him a look that said ‘yeah right’ so he said, “Did your wife say no?” I told him that Michelle may not appreciate it too much, and informed him of my current career path. He told me that he is a police chaplain for the Marietta PD, and that he would pray for me.

Now this may all seem like a disparate priest’s attempt to recruit people for the diocese, but to me it’s much more. Fr. Tim used to tell me every Sunday that he was praying for me and my future. One day after Mass at St. Francis in Blairsville, a man that I had never met before came up to me and said, “During Mass I felt the Holy Spirit move in me. I have this incredible urge to ask you if you’ve considered becoming a priest.” He said that he would be praying for me. When Fr. Wise became the pastor at St. Francis a similar thing happened. And at another Mass, another stranger had asked me the same question, “Have you considered becoming a priest?”

Last night while I was praying at church I was thinking about all of the different occasions when people have asked me about becoming a priest, and how God must have given up on trying to bring me into the priesthood. Well, God spoke to me again through the priest at last night’s Mass. Unfortunately, my goals and ambitions in life contradict with that of God’s. I want to lead a different career, and I want to marry and raise a family of my own.

There is nothing more humbling than to have God call on you.
There is nothing more painful than to be too selfish to follow His Way.
And there is nothing more terrible than trying to decide between the two.